Santorum, pro-pledge all around

Rick Santorum, who signed a Iowa social conservative marriage pledge before controversial language suggesting the days of slavery were a more family-friendly era for African-Americans was removed, defends the practice of pledge-signing in general in a USA Today op-ed:

To me, in a time when our nation's problems are so vast and so deep, a candidate should be able to meet that serious responsibility with something more than just promises. We are asking the voters to invest their special privilege and right in us. We are asking our fellow citizens for the most precious commitment they can give in a democracy: their vote.

In turn, it shouldn't be too much to ask that we offer a guarantee as well. With all candidates say and do, we should not shrink from offering our civic commitments, either. Thanks to groups concerned with issues ranging from the national debt to the value of innocent life, we candidates have now been given an opportunity to offer something as serious as the vote we are asking for — a solid commitment, a solemn promise. When we sign these pledges, that is what we are doing, solemnizing our words.

Across the section, however, the USA Today edit-heads take an opposite approach, praising Jon Huntsman for refusing to sign pledges with an editorial headlined, "Candidates who sign pledges outsource their brains."